What is Spanish Learning Curve?

Glad you asked.

Spanish Learning Curve is a newsletter about learning the Spanish language, featuring tips, hacks, free lessons, effective methods, and community sharing encouraged. 

An admission: 

I’ll start with an admission: I am not a Spanish teacher.

If what you’re looking for is traditional tuition, then there are a tonne of people far more qualified than me out there. What I am (and I’m guessing this is something we share) is someone who’s on the journey of learning the Spanish language. 

And here’s another admission: I am not a native-level Spanish speaker.

I am currently slogging my way through the intermediate stage, crawling across the dreaded plateau, slowly progressing towards a more advanced level. 

However, over the past few years of my start-stop journey as a Spanish learner, I have tried many, many different ways of learning this enchanting language. 

I’ve tried: online courses, textbooks, formal tuition, group classes, apps, podcasts, TV shows, ‘shadowing,’ flashcards, you name it…

I want to share with you what I’ve discovered, which learning methods have worked for me, and also to provide you with some resources I wish I’d had access to when I started on the path to fluency. 

Let’s learn together

Another part of this project is that I want to form a community of Spanish learners who can share their own experiences and recommended methods and resources.

Of course, everyone has different learning styles, so a technique that has helped me might not work for someone else, but sharing experiences can be a useful way to dial into your own favoured study methods.  

Awkward introductions

Anyway, here’s a bit about me: I am a writer and musician from London who’s now based in Barcelona (oh yeah, I’ve been trying immersion, too - more on that soon).

I am also kind of an introvert, so some of the aspects of language learning (namely speaking) have been a real challenge for me. 

As I’m an intermediate learner, the resources I will be focusing on will be aimed at learners who are at the beginner (A1 and A2 on the CEFRL for anyone who’s into this stuff) and intermediate stages (B1 and B2).

Anyone who’s an advanced Spanish learner is more than welcome to join the community; we would doubtless all benefit from your wisdom and advice on making fast progress. 

Structure of Spanish Learning Curve

So over the coming weeks, I am going to be covering a whole range of topics, but here are a few to start us off: 

  • My method - where I will go into the learning methods that have worked for me. This will include some posts that are structured more like bitesize Spanish language lessons.

  • Resource reviews - where I will give an honest assessment of the courses, apps, and other methods out there that I have tried as part of my learning journey.

  • Free resource recommendations - looking at some cost-effective ways (freesources?) to boost your Spanish without breaking the bank. 

  • Cognate confidence hacks - where I will offer tips on how to simultaneously boost your vocabulary and your confidence. 

  • My immersion adventures - where I will talk about my life in Barcelona and the often excruciatingly embarrassing experience of trying to force myself to converse with locals in Spanish. 

  • Comprehensible Input - as we progress, I am going to start to introduce some of my own Spanish resources that I hope could be of use to you guys. 

Want to join the Spanish Learning Curve crew?

¡Genial! ¡Vámonos amigos!

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Reflections on the highs and lows of learning the Spanish language.